Syracuse puts coach on leave over abuse probe (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? A longtime assistant basketball coach at Syracuse University was put on administrative leave on Thursday after police reopened an investigation of alleged inappropriate behavior with a ball boy.

Associate head basketball coach Bernie Fine, in his 35th season with Syracuse, was placed on leave "in light of the new allegations and the Syracuse City Police investigation," said Peter Englot, associate vice president of public affairs at Syracuse. The allegations were first reported in 2005.

"The associate coach vehemently denied the allegations," Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs at Syracuse, said in a statement.

Syracuse is the third major U.S. university to disclose an incident involving alleged abuse since the announcement on November 5 that a longtime assistant football coach at Penn State was charged with sexually abusing eight boys over nearly 15 years.

The Penn State scandal shocked the university and led to the dismissal of legendary head football coach Joe Paterno.

A week after the Penn State disclosure, South Carolina military college The Citadel admitted that it had failed to take any action against a student accused of inappropriate behavior with children at a summer camp. The man has since been arrested and charged with sexually abusing boys.

Fine's longtime boss, Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, has coached Syracuse for 34 years, including a national championship in 2003.

"I have known Bernie Fine for more than 40 years. I have never seen or witnessed anything to suggest that he would (have) been involved in any of the activities alleged. Had I seen or suspected anything, I would have taken action. Bernie has my full support," Boeheim said in a statement on Thursday night on the university's website.

The alleged behavior by Fine took place in the 1980s and 1990s when the victim was a juvenile. Syracuse police said the victim was Bobby Davis, now 39, a former ball boy with the team, Englot said.

The new investigation comes six years after the university conducted its own probe after hearing of the allegations in 2005. After a four-month investigation, launched after local police declined to open their own probe, the university was unable to corroborate the claims.

Quinn said the university decided to investigate in 2005 after the victim told police that "he had been subjected to inappropriate contact" by Fine, but city police declined to investigate because the statute of limitations had expired.

"If any evidence or corroboration of the allegations had surfaced, we would have terminated the associate coach and reported it to the police immediately," Quinn said.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Peter Bohan and Greg McCune)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111118/us_nm/us_syracuse_coach

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Floating webs capture sun, wave power

Call it a two-for-one special in renewable energy. A new concept for marine solar cells could harness energy from both the sun and the waves at the same time.

"They work on many different levels. They can be scaled up to as big a project as you want it to be," said British designer, Phil Pauley.

The idea came to him during a brief brainstorming session, he said. Usually his eponymous firm, located near London, develops interactive 3-D models and visualizations for clients that include Deutsche Bank, Hamptons International, and Eurostar.

His design calls for floating dome-shaped solar cells to be linked together in web-like patterns. Wave energy will be captured as the buoyant floats bob up and down in the water, Pauley said. Waves will also act like mirrors to bounce sunlight back on the floating cells and increase solar capture by 20 percent, he estimated. The type of photovoltaics that would cover the domes hasn't been specified yet.

"The wave force will be moving the domes up and down, which in turn will be moving the bars that connect the cell, which will be creating energy 24/7," Pauley said. The plan is for that energy to then go into storage units until it's needed.

Since releasing his design online, Pauley said he has had interest from universities and companies in developing the technology, and is in discussions with them to determine the best way to do that. He said he hopes a prototype will be ready within the next 12 months.

"It's potentially a new industry," he said.

Floating solar arrays have existed for several years, including Novato, California-based company SPG Solar's "Floatovoltaics" system, which is intended to cover small inland bodies of water such as irrigation ponds and reservoirs. However, combining kinetic wave energy with a photovoltaic system the way Pauley has is novel, said Palo Luckett, president and chief executive officer of the Kauai-based renewable energy project developer Pacific Light and Power Inc.

Luckett, whose company is working on hydro, solar and biogas projects in Hawaii, notes that locating solar arrays on water has the advantage of avoiding heavy land and site control costs. He cautions that Pauley will need to make sure his system can handle a harsh ocean environment, though.

"Whenever you have a DC current in a marine environment, there's corrosion," he said. Placing expensive high-end materials in buoy-like structures could also be a challenge, creating a bigger financial risk than constructing a basic wave energy system, Luckett said. "If you have a big storm event, a hurricane, or a big swell, suddenly it's not tens of thousands, it's hundreds of thousands (of dollars)."

While marine solar cells might not be able to provide utility-scale electricity, they could be ideal for powering marine vessels or transportation nearby, Luckett said. He added that he hopes Pauley talks with engineering groups about having feasibility work done on the concept.

"He is a beautiful designer," Luckett said. "There is certainly a lot of ocean around available for power generation."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45343693/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/

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MF Global Australian arm shut down after no buyers: report (Reuters)

SYDNEY (Reuters) ? The Australian arm of collapsed U.S. futures broker MF Global Holdings Ltd (MFGLQ.PK) has been shut down by the administrator Deloitte after no buyers could be found, the Australian newspaper reported on Saturday

Employees were told by the administrator on Friday that the business had been wound up and most had lost their jobs, the newspaper reported.

A Deloitte spokesman told Reuters the general information contained in the newspaper report was correct but declined to comment further.

Deloitte was appointed joint administrator of MF Global Australia (MFGA) on November 1, one day after its U.S. parent applied for bankruptcy protection after losing money on misplaced bets on European sovereign debt.

The administrators had hoped the sale of the local business would be completed by the end of this week.

In response to the collapse of MF Global, the Australian government on Saturday released a discussion paper in a first step aimed at reforming the regulatory regime and strengthening client protection for over-the-counter (OTC) derivative transactions.

"The collapse of MF Global has underscored the need to investigate options for strengthening client money protections for over-the-counter derivative transactions," Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Bill Shorten, said.

The government and financial regulatory watchdog, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, had been working for some time on these issues, Shorten said in a statement.

"This discussion paper was being drafted before the MF Global collapse, but the government is moving more quickly to consider these issues in light of recent events" he added.

The local unit of MF Global was the largest broker in Australian grain futures as well as a provider of highly leveraged contracts-for-difference derivatives.

Deloitte partner Christopher Campbell told the first creditors meeting in Sydney on November 11 that it would take more than three months to calculate the final amounts MF Global Australia clients can claim.

He estimated that nearly half the total funds owed to the Australian business's clients were held in cash, with most of the remainder tied up with counterparties.

Further communication will be made with clients on Monday, the Deloite spokesman said.

(Writing by Morag MacKinnon, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111119/bs_nm/us_mfglobal_australia

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Protesters removed from Gingrich event (AP)

BOSTON ? Security officials have removed several protesters after they disrupted a Harvard University appearance by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

The former House speaker was at the Kennedy School on Friday evening to discuss a documentary film he produced.

The protesters started shouting as soon as Gingrich took the microphone to introduce the film. They mockingly thanked him for standing up for corporations and claimed to represent the 99 percent. That was a reference to the Occupy Wall Street movement in cities across the country.

Gingrich did not appear rattled. He says all his appearances at Harvard have been interesting.

The incident was over in a matter of minutes. A Harvard spokesman says there were no arrests.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich_protesters

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Have scientists finally solved the mystery of the magnetic moon?

Why did the moon once have a magnetic field? A new proposal might hold the answer to a mystery that has baffled scientists for decades.

One of the abiding mysteries of our moon is why it apparently once had a magnetic field. Now two teams of scientists have offered two separate, but potentially complementary, explanations.

Skip to next paragraph

When Apollo astronauts brought back?samples of moon rocks?from their lunar landing missions in the 1960s and '70s, some of them shocked scientists by being magnetic. That means that individual rocks might have a magnetic north and south pole and a small magnetic field of their own.

This can happen to rocks with the right minerals inside them, if they cool in the presence of a magnetic field. The problem is, scientists had no idea that the moon had ever had a magnetic field, and were at a loss to explain how that might have happened.

A magnetic field is generated by what's called a dynamo, which is caused by the fluid motion of a conducting material, such as liquid iron. In the case of the?Earth's magnetic field, this motion occurs in the planet's outer core, and is caused by the convection of heat.

But the moon isn't large enough for convection to take place. Scientists were at a loss to explain what else might generate the required liquid motion of iron inside the moon, until now. [Photos: Our Changing Moon]

In one new proposal, Christina Dwyer of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her colleagues suggest that the moon's solid-rock middle layer, called its mantle, stirs up its liquid iron core. The researchers think this happens because the?moon's core?and its mantle rotate around slightly different axes, and the boundary between them is not quite spherical, so their relative motion causes the fluid to mix around.

The strength of this stirring is determined by the angle between the core and the mantle, and the distance between the Earth and the moon, because the tidal gravitational tug from the Earth causes the moon's mantle to rotate differently than the core.

This model would explain why the moon used to have a magnetic field, but no longer does. That's because the angle between the mantle and the core has narrowed over time, while the distance between the moon and the Earth has widened, causing the tidal forces to steadily decrease. While these forces used to be enough to generate a dynamo inside the moon, they aren't anymore.

Based on their calculations, the researchers estimate the?lunar magnetic field?might have lasted for about a billion years, somewhere between around 2.7 billion and 4.2 billion years ago.

"Based on what we know about stirring, and everything we know about fluid motion, we can find no reason that this would not work," Dwyer told SPACE.com. "All the flags are go, and now this needs to be taken to the next level to get tested."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/Xe9FAy0_KEQ/Have-scientists-finally-solved-the-mystery-of-the-magnetic-moon

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Michael W. R. Davis: Electric Cars Short Circuited -- In More Ways Than One

Electric cars have been all the rage in recent years, and finally it seems like the available choices for would-be buyers are expanding. For a decade, Toyota Prius was all you heard about -- even though Honda had a Civic Hybrid and Ford offered a small Escape SUV Hybrid. There were some others, too, but none sold well.

Over the last few months, Detroit has witnessed the U.S. introduction of three new or newer entries in the electric vehicle (EV) field, and each takes a different approach. We'll get to that in a moment.

On Veterans Day last week, news broke that a Chevrolet Volt (one of this year's new EVs), which had been crash-tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency, spontaneously burst into flames three weeks after the test while it was sitting in a Wisconsin junkyard unattended.

Indeed, under the hood of a Volt, there's a warning for "Emergency Personnel" that reads (in three languages): "To help avoid personal injury in an emergency, turn ignition to 'Off' [and] cut all positive cables connected at yellow tape located behind fuse access panel in rear compartment area." [There's an image of this warning label attached.]

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Now, if there's anything than humankind fears more than the unknown, it's fire. Both NHTSA and Chevrolet are proclaiming there is no fire hazard with Volts, but the damage is done, and it likely will haunt the model forever. This likely will deter sales of what is a very good solution to excessive use of fossil fuel in personal transportation. Meanwhile, G.M. and government experts are trying to figure out what went wrong.

But, as they say in middle-of-the-night TV commercials, "That's not all, folks."

This writer had the opportunity over the last couple of months to test-drive the three new EVs for a week each. Here's a run-down on them:

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Chevrolet Volt -- an elegant four-place plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) featuring, like other hybrids, an economical internal combustion engine combined with a battery-powered motor. This operating battery (as opposed to conventional storage battery) can be recharged overnight from a regular household 110-volt line and you can also top off the gas tank. The two power sources work together seamlessly, with the Volt usually running on juice until the battery charge is expended. Sticker price as tested: a few dollars short of $44,000, which makes it more Cadillac than Chevy.

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Nissan Leaf -- a five-passenger plug-in battery-powered electric vehicle (BEV) that may be re-charged overnight, say 12 to 18 hours, from an ordinary household 110-volt outlet, or about half that time from a special 220-volt line or, in an emergency, from a 440-volt line in maybe 2 to 4 hours. Fully charged, it supposedly has a range of "up to 100" miles but the devil is in the details as usual. I call it a fair weather friend, because use of the heater or air-conditioning drastically reduces the range -- like in half.

There aren't any hills to speak of around Southeast Michigan so I couldn't determine if climbing them would likewise drain the Leaf's battery. This confines the practical use of the Leaf -- or, importantly, any other pure electric BEV -- to motorists with either (a) more than one vehicle available as alternate wheels, (b) an inviolable daily route within the bounds of the battery's range under worst-case circumstances or (c) iron discipline in planning use of the electric cars for routine errands and trips, so as not to run out of juice. The Highway Patrol can't bring you a gallon of electricity. Sticker price as tested: a hair below $34,000, but theoretically you'd never have to buy another gallon of gas.

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Honda Civic Hybrid -- a well-executed five-passenger non-rechargeable hybrid gas-electric (HEV) version of the Japanese company's popular compact sedan. Unlike, the Volt and Leaf, the Civic Hybrid is almost indistinguishable from the standard 2012 Civic -- except at the price sticker. Equipped with a navigation system, upscale entertainment system and most creature comforts, the Civic Hybrid stickers at $26,320, up from $19,425 for a non-hybrid Civic LX. I'd say that is a huge bargain compared to the other two. But the hitch is, if you're a hardcore environmentalist, you have to put gas in it -- though not much comparatively, because the operational battery is bearing much of the load.

Note that all three of these electrics are impressively quiet, smooth in operation, and ride well, thanks to the weight of the batteries close to the road surface. But each has its real or suspected shortcomings -- worrisome fire danger for the pricey Volt, range anxiety for the relatively costly Leaf and proportionately greater use of gasoline for the Civic. The Volt and the Leaf, like the Toyota Prius, are designed differently, unique so as to stand out lookin' green, whereas the Honda and Ford approach has been to make their models' hybridness virtually invisible.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-w-r-davis/electric-vehicles-test-drive_b_1098193.html

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LinkedIn CEO, other insiders prepare to sell stock (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? LinkedIn's employees and early backers plan to sell more than 6.7 million shares as they reap the gains from a rapid run-up in the online professional networking service's market value.

CEO Jeff Weiner wants to sell more than 372,000 shares, the most among LinkedIn's management. The company listed the amounts in a regulatory filing Monday.

After two years as LinkedIn's CEO, Weiner is in line for a $29 million windfall from the sale. That's based on Monday's closing price of $78.49 for LinkedIn's shares. The stock sold for $45 per share in an initial public offering completed in May.

Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn's co-founder and executive chairman, isn't selling any of his nearly 19 million shares.

LinkedIn Corp. plans to sell nearly 1.3 million additional shares to help finance its expansion.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_hi_te/us_linkedin_stock_sales

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Apple recall targets first-gen iPod Nano

Apple

iPod nano, first generation

By Athima Chansanchai

If you still have a first-generation iPod Nano, now is your chance to trade it in for one that won't overheat. Apple is providing replacements for that model due to some problems it found in the six-year-old devices.

As stated by Apple:

"...in very rare cases, the battery in the iPod nano (1st generation) may overheat and pose a safety risk. Affected iPod nanos were sold between September 2005 and December 2006.

This issue has been traced to a single battery supplier that produced batteries with a manufacturing defect. While the possibility of an incident is rare, the likelihood increases as the battery ages."

Though Apple says it's "very rare," and only affects this particular model, the company does make a point of advising first-gen iPod Nano owners to stop using the device and follow the process for ordering a free replacement unit.

You should get that about six weeks after Apple receives your iPod Nano. Personalized Nanos don't come back with the original inscriptions, unfortunately. You'll get a clean one. Also, be sure to back up any data you have on?your device?before sending it off.

If you're unsure about whether or not your nano is first-gen, check for a black or white plastic front and a silver metal back. Later generations of Nanos have a metal front and back. You can see how much they've changed over the years with the latest iteration here:

Apple

This isn't the first time Apple recalled devices. In 2006, Apple recalled 1.8 rechargeable million batteries?for its?12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4 laptops sold in the U.S. from October 2003 through August 2006, as well as another 700,000 batteries sold in units abroad.?It remains the second largest recall of electronics and/or computers in the U.S.

In 2008, Apple issued a recall of iPhone 3G power adapters with metal prongs that were getting stuck in power outlets.

In the summer of 2010,?the clamor over the iPhone 4 "Antennagate" reached a crescendo in recall demands. (Apple did give?free bumpers?to owners.)

The company has also replaced headphones and the bottom cases of certain MacBooks.

More recently, Apple recalled iPad 2s in June for duplicate mobile equipment identifiers that connected to Verizon's mobile network, and iMac?Seagate 1TB hard drives.

But, Apple is hardly the only consumer tech company that issues recalls. In the year Apple had to recall nearly 2 million batteries, Dell had to recall about twice as many for its laptops. And just about a month ago, Sony recalled 1.6 million LCD HDTVs.

More stories:

Check out Technolog on?Facebook, and on Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/14/8799859-apple-recall-targets-overheating-first-gen-ipod-nano

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